U.S. Coast Guard offloads $1 billion worth of narcotics
By JOSHUA GOODMAN
Associated Press
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) — A U.S. Coast Guard vessel offloaded Thursday more than 30 metric tons of cocaine and marijuana worth over $1 billion that was seized at sea during a months-long deployment off the coast of South America. The haul of illegal narcotics brought home by the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter James was one of the biggest in recent memory. It’s a reflection of increasingly sophisticated U.S. arsenal but also a recent surge in narcotics coming from Colombia, the world’s top producer of cocaine.
